The BEST Supplements & Tests For Babies & Children, Methylene Blue For The Brain, Does Cold Water Immersion “Ruin” Exercise Results & MORE! Solosode #483

Ben Greenfield [00:00:00]: In this episode of the Boundless Life podcast, the best supplements and tests for babies and children. Methylene blue for the brain. Does cold water immersion actually ruin exercise results? And a whole lot more. Welcome to the Boundless Life with me, your host, Ben Greenfield. I'm a personal trainer, exercise physiologist and nutritionist. And I'm passionate about helping you discover unparalleled levels of health, fitness, longevity and beyond. On these solo sowed episodes, as I affectionately call them, I answer some of your questions and also get into some sexy new research and information from the field of human science. So if you have a question you want to ask for the podcast, you can do it.

Ben Greenfield [00:00:48]: You can go to BenGreenfieldLife.com the shownotes for everything I'm going to talk about today are at BenGreenfieldLife.com 483 it's BenGreenfieldLife.com 483 and do I have some doozies for you in today's episode, starting with brand new research that drumroll please. And there's a whole bunch of breatharians out there now pumping their fists saying told you we were right. Your body can absorb vitamins directly from the air. Evidence shows this is interesting. Brand new perspective article published in Advances in Nutrition Journal on so called aeronutrients. Those are different than gastronutrients which are absorbed by your gut. So when we think of nutrients, we do think of things that we obtain from our diet, from the food that we chew, that we eat. But when you dig into the scientific literature, there's strong evidence that we can actually absorb nutrients from air.

Ben Greenfield [00:01:44]: Meaning iodine, zinc, manganese and several other vitamins can be absorbed through the lungs. Which makes sense if you think about it. You and I breathe in about 9,000 liters of air a day. 483 million liters of air in a lifetime. Hopefully not much of that is through a vape pen. Unlike eating, you don't really stop breathing. So you get exposed to very small concentrations of a whole bunch of different components in air over time. And to date, much of the research on the effects of air has been centered on the deleterious effects of pollution on your body and focuses on filtering out what is bad.

Ben Greenfield [00:02:22]: But a single breath of air can also contain minuscule quantities of actual nutrients beyond just oxygen. Obviously it's technically a nutrient since a nutrient is a chemical substance required by the body to sustain basic function. So oxygen and carbon dioxide, those are nutrients, but aeronutrients go beyond oxygen. So these enter your body by being absorbed through networks of tiny blood vessels in your nose, your lungs, your olfactory epithelium, which is up in your nostrils where you detect smell, and the oropharynx, which is the back of your throat. Your lungs can actually. This is surprising. They can absorb far larger molecules than your gut can.260 times larger, to be exact. This is why when people inhale cocaine or cannabis or nicotine or anesthetics like laughing gas, that enters the body within seconds and are effective at much lower concentrations than would be needed if they were consumed orally.

Ben Greenfield [00:03:20]: Now the gut has to break down nutrients down into their smallest parts using enzymes and acids, and then those enter the bloodstream and they're metabolized and detoxified by the liver. So the gut takes up starches and sugars and amino acids from protein. But there are certain things that the gut doesn't do so great of a job of at soaking up. So most of these studies that have been done on this are pretty, pretty obvious when it comes to how quickly things can manifest in the bloodstream and in the urine when you breathe them in urine. Research from the 60s found laundry workers exposed to iodine in the air had much higher levels of iodine in their blood and in their urine. Researchers in Ireland studied school children living near seaweed rich coastal areas where atmospheric iodine gas levels are much higher. Those kids had surprises. Much more iodine in their urine and they were less likely to be iodine deficient.

Ben Greenfield [00:04:13]: This is interesting. If you live near the ocean and you have thyroid issues, some of those might be alleviated by breathing an iodine through the air. I'm not saying there's research on that, but it's interesting. Manganese and zinc can enter the brain through the neurons that smell in the nose. Manganese is an essential nutrient. Too much of it can harm the brain. Like a welder gets harmful levels of manganese buildup because they're breathing in that air. But the cilia, the little hair like structures in your olfactory and respiratory system, those do have special receptors that can bind to not just iodine.

Ben Greenfield [00:04:41]: And magazine magazines, you can't, you can't absorb magazines. Don't try. It won't work. Nutrients like choline, vitamin C, calcium, manganese, magnesium, iron, and even amino acids. Aerosolized vitamin B12 has been used in medical settings to treat vitamin B12 deficiencies, for example. Now, there's still a lot of unknowns here, right? There's very little research about how you can, say, adjust certain blood values or achieve better health through the use of arrow nutrients. But I could see a future in a world where there are things like customized vitamin formulations that are inhaled via some kind of a vaporizing device or a nebulizer. I could foresee a situation in which someone who needs a medication is able to get one very quickly via an aerosol based delivery instead of, let's say oral consumption.

Ben Greenfield [00:05:39]: So there's all sorts of things you can think about when it comes to the benefits of these so called aeronutrients. But I found that article just absolutely fascinating. I'll link to the whole thing in the show Notes from the website Science Alert. But check it out, it's very interesting. So the next one chock full of practical advice is how busy people can keep fit and healthy in the same way as the ancient Greeks and Romans did. Making the assumption that the ancient Greeks and Romans were fit and healthy. And based on ancient naked pictures of people doing gymnastics, I think they or somewhat healthy. So take the physician Galen who lived around 129 AD and he treated thousands of patients in Rome.

Ben Greenfield [00:06:15]: He used to complain that people didn't devote enough time to keeping fit. And he wrote about for example in his treatise Hygiene which you can still find and read. It's super interesting. It's a classic. Of course, it's been around since 129 AD. Anything of that length is a classic. A philosopher called Primigenes was such a workaholic he stayed inside all the time writing books Galen describes in Hygiene. Because of that, Galen says he got sick and he said that that Primigines needed to work less and devote more time to getting exercise and some sun.

Ben Greenfield [00:06:44]: And of course many of us can relate to this. We've got a lot of work. We don't have time to exercise. We don't have a walking treadmill or a pull up bar in the door of our office and a kettlebell on the floor like I advise people to do. So we just don't make it to the gym. We don't move during a day of work. Now people in the Greco Roman period recognize that being too busy can have an effect on health. There's another writer from the 2nd century AD writer Lucian of Samasota.

Ben Greenfield [00:07:07]: He talks in this essay called On Salaried posts in great Houses, which I think roughly translates into wages for workers. How certain jobs offered workers no time to maintain their health. Here's what he says in that book. I'm not even going to make a rough attempt at a Latin accent. He says the sleeplessness the sweating and the weariness gradually undermine you, giving rise to consumption, pneumonia, indigestion, or that noble complaint, the gout. I love how they describe diseases as the the gout, the heart disease, the cancer, the indigestion. I think it makes it sound much more serious and intimidating. You stick it out, however, and you often ought to be in bed.

Ben Greenfield [00:07:48]: But this is not permitted. They think illness a pretext and a way of shirking your duties. No sick time off for those people. The general consequences are that you're always pale and look as if you are going to die any minute. So Galen, around the same time he recognized people have sometimes no choice but to be bound up with the circumstances of their activ. And he himself was affected by this problem. As a doctor, he had little free time and his normal routine was often interrupted by patients problems. So Galen describes in Hygiene how he himself in his 20s, started adhering to a daily health routine around the age of 28.

Ben Greenfield [00:08:22]: He would eat one full meal each evening. So he adopted an omad diet to improve productivity and also limit the amount of face stuffing that he was engaged in. He engaged in wrestling. He mentions dislocating his shoulder while wrestling at the gym at the age of 35. So he ate one meal a day. He moved his body frequently throughout the day. And there are other examples of people who learned from Galen and went on and took this to the next level. So for example, Galen recommended that all people should play ball games involving running and throwing to keep fit.

Ben Greenfield [00:08:53]: He thought those were a good option because they exercised the whole body and didn't require much money or equipment. Right? So tennis, pickleball, hitting a tennis ball against the side of the garage, et cetera. But for his overweight patients, he would recommend a routine of fast running, brief high intensity interval training via sprinting and a slimming diet comprised of one meal a day. One wealthy Athenian citizen described in this article who lived in the 5th century BC used to keep fit by exercising on his daily commute. So when he had to go into the city, he would run or he would walk. He'd do the same thing when he was visiting his farm. I do the same thing. Like I mentioned in episode 42, when I travel, if I don't have time to go to the gym because I've got so many other things to do, including picking up groceries, I will run, slash walk to Whole Foods, doing burpees and pull ups from park apparati along the way.

Ben Greenfield [00:09:40]: Running into playgrounds full of six year olds and making them somewhat concerned by doing pull ups on the monkey bars, I'll get to Whole Foods, I'll load up the grocery bags or my backpack and I'll ruck or farmer's walk back to my Airbnb or hotel or condo. Using commuting as a way to stay fit, of course, would fall into this category as well. One doctor from the seventh century, Paul Laveena, also identified how some people at their busy schedules get in the way of their health. And he said he who spends time in business ought to consider whether in the former period of life he had been in a habit of taking exercise, or whether through not taking exercise he bears that habit well and escapes from diseases by having free perspiration, free sweat. So he recommended busy people lighten their commitments and resume as much as possible their old routine. If they couldn't, then they should diet and consume fewer calories, which I think is a reasonable idea. But here's what I'm getting at. The big picture is it's not as though it's a new post industrial thing that you don't have enough time.

Ben Greenfield [00:10:41]: At least you perceive you don't have enough time to stay fit because of your busy schedule. You can squeeze it in wherever I had one his ears are probably going to turn red because I know he listens to this podcast, but I had one CEO and executive of a successful company tell me he spent nine hours sitting down because he had meetings all day. My reply was why weren't you standing, stretching, pacing, walking around, taking little breaks. I go to conferences where I'm stuck in a room like these masterminds for two days and everybody's sitting in a giant circle. I'm the guy at the back of the room, standing, stretching, standing up and going behind my chair and doing little squats and lunges. I move, move, move all day long, defying societal expectations that just because you're in a meeting or waiting for an airplane or waiting at the doctor's office that because there's a chair there you need to sit. Okay, you need to change your lifestyle to operate based on this idea. Chairs do not necessarily mean that there is a hard and fast rule that you must sit in them.

Ben Greenfield [00:11:37]: Chairs are optional and if you adopt that habit, you'd be surprised at how many other people around you have also been just waiting, chomping at the best to have an excuse not to sit in that darn chair all day long. And you can be that person who affects change. Average airport layover of an hour and a half. I average about 8 to 10,000 steps, air squats, pushups, you name it, I'll get a full workout in at the airport, with the only downside being I get a little stinky. So my apologies if you're sitting next to me on the airplane and you smell my sweat glands. So anyways, interesting article. If you want to delve into it more, go to BenGreenfieldLife.com 483 next up, and the last thing I want to mention before we get into this week's Listener Q and A Cold Plunging Post Workout Cold plunging Post workout Is it good or is it bad? Does it blunt fitness gains? Well, this has actually been looked into and looked into more recently in a 2024 paper in the European Journal of Sports Science. The title of this paper was Throwing Cold Water on Muscle Growth.

Ben Greenfield [00:12:36]: It was a systematic review with the meta analysis and the effects of post exercise cold water immersion and whether or not that would blunt your ability to be able to build muscle after a workout. So this paper systematically reviewed the literature and did a meta analysis, a study of studies on the existing data of good studies that exist post exercise cold water immersion, also known as cwi, on people who did cold water immersion after they did resistance training after they hit the gym. So every study did not look at these sexy cryotherapy chambers out of Star Wars. Instead just basic cold water immersion, right? Cold bath, cold soak, et cetera. This is the first known systematic review that has existed to actually examine thoroughly the effects of cold water immersion on resistance training induced skeletal muscle hypertrophy. So I will tell you what they found in a nutshell. Their findings were consistent with the data from isolated studies reporting that cold water immersion blunts the anabolic response to resistance training. Blunts the anabolic response to resistance training.

Ben Greenfield [00:13:44]: You will not build muscle as fast due to blunting of what's called ribosome biogenesis, mitochondrial biogenesis and suppressed satellite cell activity, which are all the things that help with skeletal muscle hypertrophy if you're doing cold soaks after you work out. But there are important details. First, when you actually look at these studies, they were using most of them 15 to 20 minutes. The shortest study was 10 minutes of cold water immersion. The temperatures ranged, but all of them were 50 degrees Fahrenheit or less, 10 degrees Celsius or less. Now that's a long enough time 10 to 20 minutes in cold to get sufficiently cold to put this into perspective for you. Especially if I have a day where I'll be out and about needing to get dressed, go out Meet people. I don't want to be sweating and still warm post workout or I do a workout later on in the day and I don't want to be warm going to bed, I do a 30 to 60 second cold shower.

Ben Greenfield [00:14:38]: @ the gym, I jump in my cold tub for 20 seconds to a maximum of two minutes. I don't get anywhere close to that 10 to 20 minute length that they've actually found to be deleterious. In the actual studies that have actually, and this will be a drinking game every time I say actual or actually look into the effects of cold water immersion. So that's the first thing. You have to be in cold water for a really long period of time. It's not all black and white baby talk. Okay, so if people say, hey, is cold water after a workout bad for you and you aren't going to build muscle quite as quickly, the response should be how long and how cold. Right.

Ben Greenfield [00:15:11]: Because a long cold session that leaves you shivering is enough to drop the muscle core temperature to restrict your ability to be able to mount your own inflammatory response to exercise. Very similar to the idea of not taking very high doses of antioxidants or a whole bunch of ibuprofen after an exercise that will blunt your gains. It is kind of funny. I was listening to a podcast discussion between a couple of exercise scientists and one, he's actually a pretty respected scientist in the sector and I was shocked that he said this. He said, don't have fruits and vegetables after you work out because they will blunt your body's ability to be able to mount its own anti inflammatory response. And I covered this thoroughly several podcast episodes ago. But all of the studies that show antioxidants such as you would find in fruits and and vegetables to be able to blunt the inflammatory response to exercise, are using megadoses of synthetic vitamin C and synthetic vitamin E, a handful of blueberries and apple, or a kale, beet and goat cheese salad after workout comes nowhere near to the amounts that you would have to eat. Pounds and pounds of blueberries and your kale salad would be so big you'd have to put it in a blender and turn it into a smoothie to even be able to go through it all effectively.

Ben Greenfield [00:16:17]: Okay, so the dose is important. This is not all baby talk, black and white. I also thought it was interesting how the authors of the paper talked about some of the mechanisms of action via which cold water immersion of sufficient length could blunt hypertrophy. So they said one hypothesis is that it does reduce the inflammatory response and that is true. But there are some other mechanisms of action that they proposed in addition to cold exposure. Blunting inflammatory markers. Inflammatory markers would be like interleukin 6 or tumor necrosis factor or some of these reactive oxygen species that build up post exercise. So, for example, another mechanism of action that they propose that I think is reasonable is that cold water immersion negatively affects anabolism via reductions in post exercise blood flow to the musculature because of the vasoconstrictive effect of cold.

Ben Greenfield [00:17:14]: Right. Less blood to the muscles when you get them sufficiently cold. Another proposed mechanism of action is reduced nutrient delivery to muscles because of the blunting of nutrient delivery and blunting of blood flow in addition to the vasoconstriction that occurs with post workout cold water immersion. I think it's multifactorial. I think it is the drop in metabolic rate, drop in blood flow, vasoconstriction and blunting of inflammatory markers. And all four of those can cause a long, again, long cold soak that gets you very cold and shivering. Shivering is the sign that you've gotten cold enough. Really.

Ben Greenfield [00:17:50]: I don't know anybody who could sit for, let's say 20 minutes at 50 degrees. And 50 degrees is not that cold, but it adds up over time. 20 minutes at 50 degrees, you're going to be shivering. Afterwards, you're not going to be shivering. I mean, I jump for 30 to 60 seconds into 33 degrees and that's fine. Post workout, we're talking about a long cold soak that you really want to be careful with. And then you should also be aware that nearly every study consisted primarily of drum roll, please. No surprises here.

Ben Greenfield [00:18:20]: Young men, only one of the eight studies they looked into involved any female participants. No studies involved adolescents or older adults. So we can't even necessarily take this and apply it to every population because there are influences like genetic implications, muscle sensitivity, hormonal factors. All of those have an effect. So we still need studies regardless on like a little kid versus a woman versus an older individual versus a young, virile trained man. So more research is necessary. But I get asked this question so often. Oh, the other thing to bear in mind is that not a lot of these studies have been done on endurance.

Ben Greenfield [00:18:58]: Right. And it's possible that. Think about it this way. If cold water immersion blunts muscle soreness, which we know that does, it limits muscle soreness, it limits delayed onset muscle soreness. If that allows you to train harder the next day or the next, throughout the next week, et cetera, then you could make a case that the pros outweigh the cons, right? Or maybe you just enjoy it and you feel good the rest of the day after you do it. And you're not lifting weights to put on as much muscle as possible. You're lifting weights to feel good, and the correct water makes you feel even better after you work out, then proceed. So anyways, I'll link to the full paper in the show notes, but I just wanted to really highlight the fact that there's a lot more to the equation than just don't get in cold water after you work out.

Ben Greenfield [00:19:40]: All right, let's move on into some listener Q and A Philip asks, what supplements do you recommend for children and at what age would you recommend they take them? For example, we have a baby who's almost one year old been giving him Green Pastures cod liver oil. I think that's a good bet and I'll explain why momentarily. I am curious your thoughts on what else would be good. Well, there is actual research on nutrition for young children and for babies. For example, there was one systematic review of 12 trials published since the year 2000 with children between 2 and 6 years old across Germany, Ethiopia, India, Norway, Indonesia, Greece, South Africa, the US even Guinea Bissau. And these nutritional interventions range in duration from 3 to 10 months. And looked into supplementation for kids. Now what they found was there are certain things that can actually improve listening comprehension, vocabulary scores, working memory and accuracy and speed of performance on processing tasks in children, with the things that leap out the most being B vitamins, iron in those children who have iron deficiency anemia or who are not getting enough iron in their diet, such as a vegan or vegetarian child and DHA, omega 3 fatty acids.

Ben Greenfield [00:20:55]: Right. So we can make a case right off the bat for fish oil and a good B vitamin complex and possibly also iron supplementation depending on a child's needs. And that's where testing comes into the equation. I'll explain that shortly. Iodized salts seem to offer a little bit of benefit, meaning like the iodine you get from table salt, even though I'm a bigger fan of things like seaweed, nori, kelp, dolce, even the seaweed based seasonings that you can squeeze into a kid's diet for getting adequate iodine levels and thyroid support. So that was one study. What else has been looked into dietary supplements also include for adhd. One that has been studied for children is fish oil consumption, specifically for reducing symptoms of ADHD in children, higher omega 3 fatty acid intake and fish oil consumption Seems to be beneficial for children.

Ben Greenfield [00:21:47]: Exclusively breastfed infants seem to benefit from 400iu per day of vitamin D, 600iu of vitamin D daily for toddlers and older children. Vitamin D over and over again seems like a pretty good idea for kids unless they're formula fed because a lot of formulas are fortified with vitamin D and you don't want excess vitamin D. With my sons I simply gave them a lot of fermented foods, full fat, yogurt, grass fed butter, a lot of these things and organ meats. Right. So they had really bioavailable levels of vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin K. So I went more of the whole foods route. Fish oil I already mentioned, and then iron and iodine in some cases have also been backed up in other research. So what else? In addition to vitamin D, iron and omega 3 fatty acids, probiotics have been studied.

Ben Greenfield [00:22:41]: There's research on microbiome health in children and you can make a case that in children have gut issues, digestive issues, colic, diarrhea, eczema, that specific strains, namely Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium infantis would be a good idea for kids. There's one company that I like called Seed. They have a pediatric probiotic that's fantastic. It's a powder. Kids like the taste. You can mix it into yogurt. That'd be a great one to look at. Uhm, Vitamin K has been looked at, but primarily for preventing bleeding disorders in newborns.

Ben Greenfield [00:23:13]: I think a newborn who's getting mom's breast milk or formula has good amounts of fat soluble vitamins in it, doesn't need hefty amounts of vitamin K in isolation. But that's another one, vitamin B12. I mentioned that earlier, especially for kids on a vegan or vegetarian diet, essential for nervous system development. Uh, calcium, if they're not getting it from their diet, like a kid with a dairy free diet, lactose intolerance, inadequate dietary calcium intake, et cetera, that would be another. I went through so many sardines, canned sardines with my kids growing up because they get the bones and that just gives them a ton of bioavailable calcium. Also great if you're at risk for osteopenia or osteoporosis. Zinc has been studied for growth, immune function and wound healing in kids. So small amounts of zinc from a kids based multivitamin.

Ben Greenfield [00:23:55]: You could also make a case for multivitamins in general. There are some great companies out there that make really good kids formulations, thorns, designs for health. Another one is Extend Life. They have some great men's, women's, children's formulas, et cetera. So that would be another good company to look into. So you said, Philip, that your baby was on cod liver oil, which is going to give you the DHA that I talked about. But in summary, the other things to look into and you should test first. I'll get into that shortly.

Ben Greenfield [00:24:25]: Vitamin D, iron, probiotics, vitamin K, vitamin B12, calcium, zinc, iodine and a good multivitamin you could all make a case for if they're not getting that stuff from a whole foods based diet. In most cases you can cover most of those bases with a really good whole foods based diet. If you were to Google this is basically how I fed my sons and they're knock on wood, healthy and strong and had pretty good physical development growing up. Just google. I'll put a link in the show Notes Even the Weston A. Price Dietary Recommendation. You'll get basically a one pager if you were to look at the Weston A. Price dietary guidelines or dietary recommendations and I can run you through basically what they are.

Ben Greenfield [00:25:10]: Beef, lamb, game, organ meats, poultry and eggs from pasture fed animals Wild fish, fish eggs and shellfish from unpolluted waters Full fat milk products from pasture fed cows, preferably raw and or fermented like raw milk, whole yogurt, kefir, cultured butter, full fat, raw cheeses and fresh and sour cream. Animal fats not seed oils but animal fats, lard, tallow, egg yolks, cream and butter Liberally only traditional vegetable oils, namely extra virgin olive oil, expeller express sesame oil, small amounts of expeller expressed flax oil and the tropical oils like coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil Cod liver oil regularly for at least 10,000 IU of vitamin A and 1,000 IU of vitamin D per day. Those are adult recommended recommendations. You'd half or quarter those for kids Fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably organic using vegetables and salads or soups or lightly steamed with butters whole grains, legumes and nuts that have been soaked, sprouted or sour leavened to neutralize the phytic acid, enzyme inhibitors and other anti nutrients. Enzyme rich lacto, fermented vegetables, fruits, beverages and condiments. We're talking kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha et cetera. Homemade bone broth from chicken, beef and lamb fed non GMO feed and wild fish bones used liberally in soups, stews, gravies and sauces filtered Purified water, unrefined salt, and a wide variety of herbs and spices. And traditional sweeteners in moderation.

Ben Greenfield [00:26:36]: Raw honey, maple syrup, maple sugar, date sugar, dehydrated cane sugar, juice, and stevia powder. What I just described to you is basically exactly how I fed my sons. And it's really how the Greenfield family primarily eats anyways these days. And yeah, there's some people who have, I don't know, again, lactose intolerance that can't do the full fat dairy. Some people do have a true gluten allergy and can't do, say like soaked, sprouted or sour leavened whole grain. But for the most part, those guidelines are spot on. My books, Boundless Kitchen and Boundless Cookbook, were written with those exact guidelines that I just described to you. So hopefully that helps a little bit.

Ben Greenfield [00:27:13]: And then when it comes to testing, you know, there's one company that I really like. It's called Tiny Health. You can check out tinyhealth.com this company was actually formed by a mom whose baby had eczema and had to work through some food allergies. The baby was no surprises here, born via C section, so less of a floral seeding from mom's biome because the baby didn't come down the vaginal canal. And she put together a website based on testing a baby's gut health and a child's gut health. It's a mess. Free gut Microbiome health test. I've had a few people who I've consulted with for their babies and children's health who have run this test to look at conditions associated with poor sleep, constipation, eczema, allergies, et cetera.

Ben Greenfield [00:27:57]: That's a really good one. My own sons did the three by four genetic panel, although now they're doing what I think is even more complete, the 10x precision genetic test to be able to see how they should eat and live according to their genes. And then any kid can do a basic blood panel. I have what's called a RUPA health page at BenGreenfieldLife.com, that's a full list of the tests that I recommend. There's a basic blood panel on there and a kid can do that too to look at any nutrition deficiencies or issues. And then finally, if you want to take a deep dive into environmental sensitivities and food sensitivities, there are two different food sensitivity food allergy tests that I like. One is called the Zoomer panel and one is called the Cyrex Panel C Y R E X. So basic blood tests, basic genetic tests, and basic food allergy and environmental sensitivity tests would be the big ones to look at.

Ben Greenfield [00:28:47]: And then if you want to look at the microbiome and you can't get a like a Genova Diagnostics three day stool panel for a kid, which is the one I recommend for adults, the tiny health test is a great company to look at. So hopefully that is helpful. So those are some of the big ones that I would look at. All right, let's move on. We have a question here from Denise who says what is the best supplement to support brain, cognition and memory? What is the best supplement to support brain, cognition and memory? Look, I know we live in an era where there are tons of different stacks out there, Onits Alpha Brain and Qualia's Mind and the company Nootopia and all those are fantastic. They're really cool nootropic formulations. But you can't take a whole bunch of ingredients that have been studied in human clinical research to support memory and cognition, blend them all together at once and actually make claims that they're superior or they do the things that the nutrients in isolation do. So you can't say there's wonderful human clinical research behind any of the done for you stacks out there, even though I think they're good.

Ben Greenfield [00:29:54]: The actual things that have studies behind them that assist with cognition and memory are as follows. The first is omega 3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA. The omega 3s, particularly those you'd find in, say, fish oil, play a critical role in brain structure and function. So high levels of DHA and EPA have been found over and over again to support memory, mood and cognitive function at about 1 to 1.5 grams daily. Very simple. I use the Kion Omegas for that. For example, two soft gel caps from, you know, clean anchovy based fish oil caught off the Peruvian coast is great. Nordic Naturals would be another example of a good company that does a good job.

Ben Greenfield [00:30:32]: There's a few others out there. Thorn Designs for Health. Some of these companies that just put out good products would be great options for fish oil if you're not having a serving of fish on a regular basis. Phosphatidylserine, that's a phospholipid that maintains cellular function in the brain. It has been studied and associated with improved memory, attention and cognitive performance, particularly in older people. At about 100 to 300 milligrams per day. It's also great to take at night if you're stressed. Phosphatidylserine is great for controlling cortisol.

Ben Greenfield [00:30:59]: So that would be another one, B vitamin complex that helps to lower your homocysteine levels, especially if you have poor methylation status, which you can elucidate via genetic test. That can reduce the risk of cognitive decline, particularly for those kind of like I hinted at when talking about kids, nutrition, who have nutrient deficiencies. Ginkgo biloba, that enhances blood flow to the brain and is definitely one for memory. Anywhere from 120 to 240 milligrams of ginkgo biloba for memory. L. Theanine combined with caffeine. This is a great hack. With a cup of coffee, you take about 100 milligrams of a powdered L Theanine.

Ben Greenfield [00:31:34]: Even this stuff I'm drinking right now, it's L Theanine and paraxanthine, which is an ingredient isolated and refined from the caffeine molecule. The combination of L Theanine and caffeine improves focus, reaction time and working memory. You could find that perfectly packaged in nature from something like green tea. So there you have it, Huperzine A. You get that from a natural compound called clubmoss that inhibits the breakdown of something called acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that's vital for memory and learning. Huperzine A may also benefit those with memory concerns like Alzheimer's disease. That would be another one you can use.

Ben Greenfield [00:32:07]: There's one Chinese adaptogenic herb formulation I like called Tian Qi. I'll put a link to in the show notes that has Huperazine in it. Bacopa monnieri, that's a traditional Ayurvedic herb that can also enhance memory and cognitive performance. One company called Beekeepers Naturals, they have a product, I forget the name. It's a brain boosting little shot and it has Ginkgo biloba, Bacopa monnieri, and I believe they have propolis in there as well and maybe royal jelly extract. That's a great example of something that specifically would be really good for memory. And then finally we have lion's mane mushroom, which has great potential for stimulating nerve growth factor, brain repair and neurogenesis. So if you just want to stick to the stuff that's been studied and researched, I got one more for you.

Ben Greenfield [00:32:48]: It's kind of a sexy extra addition to the table. Fish oil, phosphatidylserine, B vitamin complex, Ginkgo biloba. L. Theanine with caffeine, Huperzine, a Bacopa monnieri and lion's mane mushrooms. Those would be the big ones that have really good data behind them in terms of human clinical research on supporting cognitive function and memory. However, there's one more that you may have heard of. It's called methylene blue. Methylene blue is a very promising and safe intervention for the treatment of acute and chronic conditions characterized by oxidative stress, neurodegeneration and memory deficits in the brain.

Ben Greenfield [00:33:30]: I personally take about 400 milligrams of methylene blue three to four times per week. I use a little dropper bottle. I like that it doesn't dye my mouth. I just put it right at the back of my throat or dissolve and water. The one I use right now is made by a company called BioBlue, which also just introduced fast action capsules of methylene blue. But methylene blue is interesting. It has been studied. I'll link to a really great paper called the Neurometabolic Mechanisms for Memory Enhancement and Neuroprotection of Methylene Blue that was actually published in 2011.

Ben Greenfield [00:33:58]: So this knowledge has been around for quite some time, but it goes into the memory enhancing and neuroprotective mechanisms of action of methylene blue. So at low dosages, not very, very high dosages because it is a what's called a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. You don't want to mess around with super high doses of methylene blue, but it has been shown to be beneficial as an electron cycler in the mitochondrial electron transport chain, enhancing cellular respiration and antioxidant properties, leading to improved nervous system function. It's been shown to assist with memory consolidation and cognitive enhancement. It's been shown to be effective as a neuroprotective agent due to its ability to modulate free radical production and reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress. It is something that nearly everyone I have recommended to try. It notices results right away, especially when combined with red light therapy. Red light bed, infrared sauna, sunlight exposure, a red light panel.

Ben Greenfield [00:34:55]: That's like the turkey and cranberry of brain and mitochondrial enhancement, in my opinion. So I'm a huge fan of throwing methylene blue into the equation. I don't overdo it because it is antibacterial, it's antiviral. If you just use it every single day, all the time, you could theoretically harm your gut microbiome because you just get it too clean. I've never had issues when I do a gut test with bacterial insufficiencies from me taking it three to four times per week. But methylene blue is definitely one of those things that I would put way up there as something that has been studied for brain cognition and memory that has systemic effects on the rest of the body and the mitochondria for everything from energy to immune system enhancement again to memory cognition. So big, big fan of methylene blue, so I would definitely throw that one in there as well. You'll notice this piece of gum in my mouth is not dyed blue.

Ben Greenfield [00:35:50]: Didn't do methylene blue today, but huge fan of it again three to four times per week. So great questions from Philip and also from who asked the question about memory. It was Denise. Great question Denise. That's going to wrap up episode 483. I will put links to everything I talked about the Weston A. Price dietary recommendations, the cool articles about aeronutrients and how the ancient Greeks and Romans stayed fit and healthy cold plunging after a workout. If you Enjoy these, visit BenGreenfieldLife.com 483 Leave a comment I read them all.

Ben Greenfield [00:36:21]: I'd love to hear your feedback. You can also interact with my AI Ben over there. Ask it a question. I have a right there on the front page of the website. You can ask anything you want. I've fed it over 10 years of my data and information resources and does a pretty darn good job if I don't say so myself. Which I'm not, because it's not me, but it's the AI version of me, so it's almost me saying so myself. So again, show [email protected] 483 thank you so much for listening.

Ben Greenfield [00:36:47]: I hope these mini solosode episodes are helpful for you and give you all sorts of interesting information that makes your life better. Thanks so much for tuning in. To discover even more tips, tricks, hacks and content to become the most complete, boundless version of you, visit BenGreenfieldLife.com.

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